ALEX McLeish last night denied there was anything “sinister” in the high number of withdrawals from the Scotland squad for the Nations League matches with Albania and Israel matches after Kieran Tierney became the ninth player to pull out.
McLeish revealed that Celtic left back Tierney had been nursing a tight hamstring in training all week - as a result of playing against Livingston on the artificial surface at the Tony Macaroni Stadium on Sunday.
The 59-year-old stressed that the defender had been desperate to be involved and was up-set when both Scotland and Celtic medical staff advised him not to travel to Albania yesterday.
Mikey Devlin, Craig Gordon, Kevin McDonald, John McGinn, Jon McLaughlin, Charlie Mulgrew, Stephen O’Donnell and Tierney have all pulled out of the original 23-man squad. Meanwhile, Ryan Jack was called up on Sunday only to pull out on Tuesday.
McLeish reacted tersely when asked if he could assure supporters that the players who have pulled out wanted to play for both him and their country at the press conference here in Tirana ahead of the Group C1 match.
“I don’t think I want to answer that,” he said. “I don’t see why you’re asking a question for that. You don’t think they want to play for Scotland?
“They all came. The ones that came and have gone, Kieran was bursting to pay. John McGinn was bursting to play. There is nothing sinister so there’s no need to ask that question.
“It’s something that’s out of our control, a little bit of a freak. It’s not something sinister. If you’re trying to find a story out of it there’s nothing there. It’s bad luck.
“The guys play to very high levels, they reach high levels in training, they go into the red zone in training, some of them pick up knocks. Unfortunately for us we’ve had a number picking up knocks at the same time. It’s nothing sinister, it’s all genuine injuries.
“Kieran Tierney was desperate to play for us he was fantastic in his attitude, but the medical from the doctors and the physios decreed he had to pull out.
“It’s a different era. You had the performance guys now and every little detail is monitored. When I played back in the day we didn’t have performance coaches, sometimes you had a knock and you played through it."
Asked if he felt some of the players who had pulled out could have taken part in the matches, he said: “No. Absolutely not chance. Because we have to respect the physios and the doctors says. That’s why they are here, they have their job and we have ours, you have to have total respect for that.
“He (Tierney) had a tightness in his leg, his hamstring. There was no doubt about it, you can’t mess about with these things. Right away he flagged it up this morning. He nursed it over the week, he was nursing it, he had a bit of tightness.
“We all thought it was due to the fact Celtic played on Astroturf last week there was a bit of tightness with all the Celtic guys playing on different surfaces. But Kieran’s seemed to linger and that’s why we had to make that decision when he flagged it up this morning.”
Asked if he would have been able to play if Celtic’s game had been on grass, he said: “I don’t know but the fact the guys were tight, there is a difference playing on Astrotruf, no doubt about it. I don’t want to criticise Astrotuf pitches per se but the guys came with a bit of tightness. We thought it would wear off. They get almost 48 hours to get back to normal on the training field.”
Meanwhile, McLeish, who has called up Sheffield United midfielder John Fleck for the game against Israel at Hampden on Tuesday, insisted Scotland can still beat Albania and Israel and secure a Euro 2020 play-off spot.
“It is obvious the amount of players calling off has disrupted the squad in general a wee bit, but we feel we have the players here to get us the results that we need," he said. “We haven’t changed anything in terms of the system. "
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here